> Enrich.chat gives AI agents verified work emails and mobiles. To use it from an agent, read https://enrich.chat/agents.md . This is the Markdown version of https://enrich.chat/blog/intent-data/

# What is intent data? Types, how it works, what it costs, and when a contact list works better

Intent data tells you which companies are researching a topic. It does not tell you who to contact. Here are the types, the main providers, real contract prices, and when plain contact data is enough.

By Enrich.chat Editorial. Updated October 15, 2026.

**Short answer:** Intent data is behavioral data that shows which companies are researching a topic or product right now, such as reading articles, comparing vendors or visiting a pricing page. It comes from your own channels, a partner's site, or an outside network like [Bombora's publisher co-op](https://bombora.com/intent/), and it points to a company, not a named person. [Vendr's buyer data](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora) puts the median Bombora contract at $25,000 a year.

## Key takeaways

- Intent data is account-level. It shows that a company is researching a topic, not who is doing it or whether they will buy. Apollo, Bombora and Demandbase each say so in their own documentation.
- There are three types: first-party (your site and emails), second-party (a partner such as G2) and third-party (an outside network such as Bombora, which compares the latest three weeks with a 12-week baseline).
- Vendr's buyer data shows a median of $25,000 a year for Bombora and $62,220 for 6sense. Apollo includes intent on every plan, starting at one topic on its Free plan.
- Few accounts are in market at once: about 20% in a year and 5% in a quarter, per Ehrenberg-Bass research for LinkedIn's B2B Institute.
- Enrich.chat does not sell intent data. A contact list is enough when you can name and reach all your fit accounts, and it is the last step even when you do buy intent.

## What is intent data?

Intent data shows which companies are researching a topic or product right now. [Bombora](https://bombora.com/intent/), which sells it, describes buyer intent as a signal that predicts when a company is in market for a product or solution. The signal is a pattern of behavior, such as reading many articles on one subject or comparing vendors on a review site. Visiting your pricing page twice in a week counts too.

In plain terms, intent data tells you who might be shopping. It does not tell you who to email. [Demandbase's guide](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/), answered August 11, 2026, says intent works best as a way to prioritize accounts. It adds that intent cannot show that a specific person has decided to buy.

You will see the same idea under other names. [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) says buyer intent data, B2B intent data and sales intent data mean the same thing. [G2's glossary](https://www.g2.com/glossary/intent-data-definition) defines it as data that reveals what a buyer is interested in and predicts the next step in their purchase. The label changes. The signal does not.

### What do teams use intent data for?

Sales and marketing teams use it for five jobs.

- **Prioritize accounts.** [Bombora](https://bombora.com/intent/) pitches intent as a way to pinpoint the accounts most likely to be in market.
- **Time outreach.** [Demandbase](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/) says a change in research behavior, read alongside CRM data, helps sales decide whether an account is worth contacting now.
- **Personalize messages.** Topic data shows which problems an account is reading about, so the message can match.
- **Target ads.** Bombora builds custom audiences at the accounts that show intent.
- **Spot churn and expansion.** Bombora says customers who research competitors may be at risk, and customers who research related topics may be ready to expand.

Intent data is one of four common kinds of B2B data. Firmographic data describes the company, technographic data lists what it runs, and role data describes the people. Our guide to [firmographic data](https://enrich.chat/blog/firmographic-data/) compares all four.

## What are the types of intent data?

Intent data comes in three types, named for who collected the signal: first-party, second-party and third-party. Demandbase uses this three-way split. G2's glossary groups it into two, first-party and third-party.

| Type | Where the signal comes from | Example | What it misses |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| First-party | Your own website, emails, webinars and product, per [Demandbase](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/) | A prospect visits your pricing page twice in a week | Companies that have not found you yet |
| Second-party | Another firm's first-party data, shared with you, such as a review site | A buyer views your product comparison page on [G2](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent) | Anything outside the partner's own site |
| Third-party | Activity collected across outside sites and networks, such as [Bombora's co-op](https://bombora.com/intent/) of B2B publishers | A company reads far more articles on one topic than usual | Who did the reading, and whether they will buy |

Most teams use more than one type. ZoomInfo says third-party data catches accounts before they visit your site, while first-party data deepens what you know about prospects already in your pipeline. Start with first-party signals, since you already own them. Buy outside data when your own traffic is too thin to rank accounts.

Vendors also sell signals that sit next to intent. The [6sense Sales Intelligence pricing page](https://6sense.com/pricing/) lists web visitor identification, job postings and technographics alongside third-party intent. Technographics show what a company runs, not what it is researching. Our guide to [technographic data](https://enrich.chat/blog/technographic-data/) explains the difference.

## How does intent data work?

A provider collects behavior, ties it to a company, compares it with that company's usual level, and flags a spike. [Demandbase lists](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/) the same steps: collect signals, classify the topic, resolve the activity to an account, set a baseline, spot a change, and combine it with other data.

1. **Collect behavior.** [Bombora](https://bombora.com/intent/) gathers research activity through a consent-driven tag on thousands of B2B publisher and brand sites. [G2](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent) records page views on its own marketplace, and its Buyer Intent also covers Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp.
2. **Tie it to a company.** [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) says it captures signals across more than 210 million IP-to-organization pairings. [6sense](https://6sense.com/platform/intent-data/) calls its version web deanonymization: it matches anonymous web traffic to accounts.
3. **Compare with a baseline.** Bombora scores each account and topic by comparing [the most recent three weeks with a 12-week baseline](https://bombora.com/intent/). A busy company is judged against its own history.
4. **Score and refresh.** [Apollo](https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/8047704465933) shows Bombora's scores and refreshes them weekly. A score of 75 to 100 counts as high intent, 61 to 74 as medium, and anything below 61 is not shown. [G2 updates](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent) its Buying Stage and Activity Level daily.
5. **Send it to your tools.** [G2 Audiences](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent) can sync companies that match a signal to ad platforms such as LinkedIn Ads, so ads reach people at those accounts.

G2's data reference shows what one signal holds. Figure 1 uses its field names with made-up values. The signal names a company and describes what it did. It has no field for a person.

**Figure 1: What one buyer intent signal contains and what it leaves out.** An illustrative G2 Buyer Intent signal has company fields (company name, company domain, employee range) and behavior fields (visit type compare, buying stage Consideration, activity level Medium, last seen date). A dashed box lists what the signal does not contain: a person's name, job title, work email and mobile number. An arrow leads to a contact lookup step that turns a company domain into people and work emails.

*One buyer intent signal names a company and what it did, with no field for a person. Field names are from [G2's Buyer Intent data reference](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent-data-reference); the values are made up. Source: G2, updated September 2, 2026.*

## What can intent data not tell you?

Intent data cannot tell you who did the research, whether they will buy, or what they did on sites the provider does not see. Four limits matter most.

### It points to a company, not a person

[Apollo's help center](https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/8047704465933) says buying intent applies to companies. When you search for people, Apollo shows people who work at companies with intent, and they may not be the ones doing the research. [Bombora](https://bombora.com/intent/) says account-level intent shows you where to look, and a separate persona layer shows who is driving the research. [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) offers Person-Level Intent, which it says identifies a named contact tied to the activity when available. Ask any vendor how it builds person-level signals before you pay for them.

### A signal is not a decision

[Demandbase](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/) says intent is a signal, not proof that someone is ready to buy. [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) is blunt about pricing-page views. On their own, they do not reliably predict a purchase, because many people browse pricing with no intention of buying. A signal gets useful in a pattern, such as repeat visits plus a good fit.

### Most accounts are not shopping

6sense says [its research](https://6sense.com/platform/intent-data/) finds that only 5 to 10% of accounts in an ideal customer profile are ready to buy right now. Research by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for LinkedIn's B2B Institute points the same way. It found that companies change providers about every five years, so around [20% are in market in a year and 5% in a quarter](https://marketingscience.info/news-and-insights/ehrenberg-bass-95-of-b2b-buyers-are-not-in-the-market-for-your-products). Treat both as rough guides, not measurements of your market.

### Each provider sees only part of the web

Coverage depends on where a provider has tags or traffic. Bombora's signal comes from its co-op of publisher and brand sites. G2's comes from its own marketplace. A company that researches elsewhere leaves no trace. [Demandbase](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/) tells buyers to ask each vendor where its data comes from and how much of your market it can observe.

## Who are the main intent data providers?

The main sellers are Bombora, 6sense, ZoomInfo, G2, Demandbase and Apollo. They differ in where the signal comes from and how you buy it. The table shows what each vendor says on its own pages, checked October 15, 2026.

| Provider | Where the signal comes from | How you buy it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Bombora](https://bombora.com/intent/) | Its co-op of B2B publisher and brand sites | Quote only, [no list price](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora) |
| [6sense](https://6sense.com/platform/intent-data/) | Its own intent plus partners Bombora, TechTarget, TrustRadius and G2, with web deanonymization | Demo request, no prices on its [pricing page](https://6sense.com/pricing/) |
| [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) | Intent inside its platform, also offered through an API and an MCP server | Quote only, [no list price](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/zoominfo) |
| [G2 Buyer Intent](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent) | Page views on G2, Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp | Your G2 plan sets which signals you get |
| [Demandbase](https://www.demandbase.com/pricing/) | Its account-based platform | Quote by form: a platform fee plus a flat fee per user |
| [Apollo](https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/8047704465933) | Bombora's company scores inside Apollo search | Included on every plan: 1 topic on Free, 6 on Basic or Professional, 12 on Organization |

Bombora's data shows up inside other products. Apollo says its scores come from Bombora, and 6sense lists Bombora as a partner. ZoomInfo says it now offers intent through APIs and an MCP server, so AI agents can query it. See our [ZoomInfo MCP guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/zoominfo-mcp/), and our roundup of [sales intelligence tools](https://enrich.chat/blog/best-sales-intelligence-tools/) for the wider field.

## How much does intent data cost?

Intent data usually costs tens of thousands of dollars a year, and almost no vendor lists a price. [Vendr's Bombora guide](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora) says the median buyer pays $25,000 a year, based on 35 purchases that ranged from $13,000 to $80,450. [Vendr's 6sense guide](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/6sense) puts the median at $62,220, from 386 purchases that ranged from $11,234 to $176,511. Vendr last updated both guides in February 2026.

The ZoomInfo and G2 medians cover more than intent. [Vendr](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/zoominfo) reports a $33,500 median for ZoomInfo's platform from 1,577 purchases. For [G2](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/g2) it reports $28,000 from 529 purchases, where Buyer Intent is one of several add-ons. Figure 2 plots all four.

**Figure 2: Median yearly contract for intent and sales intelligence platforms.** Vendr buyer data on yearly contracts. Bombora has a median of $25,000 across 35 purchases, ranging from $13,000 to $80,450. G2 has a median of $28,000 across 529 purchases, ranging from $12,000 to $73,448. ZoomInfo has a median of $33,500 across 1,577 purchases, ranging from $7,240 to $156,042. 6sense has a median of $62,220 across 386 purchases, ranging from $11,234 to $176,511.

*Median and range of yearly contracts paid, from Vendr buyer data. Bombora sells intent data. The other three bundle intent with a larger product, so their numbers cover more than intent. Source: Vendr guides to [Bombora](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora), [G2](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/g2), [ZoomInfo](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/zoominfo) and [6sense](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/6sense), last updated February 2026, checked October 15, 2026.*

Fees can stack on top. Vendr says [Bombora sells annual contracts and does not publish list prices](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora). It also lists onboarding fees of $5,000 to $20,000 or more, and API access at $5,000 to $20,000 or more a year. [Demandbase's pricing page](https://www.demandbase.com/pricing/) asks you to fill out a form and describes a platform fee plus a flat fee per user.

The cheapest way in is an included allowance. [Apollo's help center](https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/8047704465933) says buying intent is available on all plans, from 1 topic on Free to 12 on Organization. Plan prices are in our [Apollo pricing guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/apollo-pricing/), and ZoomInfo's are in our [ZoomInfo pricing guide](https://enrich.chat/blog/zoominfo-pricing/).

## Is intent data legal and private?

Intent data is not banned, but how a vendor collects and matches signals decides whether it counts as personal data. The UK Information Commissioner's Office says [online identifiers such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers may be personal data](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/personal-information-what-is-it/what-is-personal-information-a-guide/), while information about companies is not. Company-level scores describe organizations. Signals tied to a named person need more care.

[Bombora](https://bombora.com/intent/) says its tag is consent-driven and that its products meet GDPR and CCPA standards. Treat that as the vendor's claim. Ask for details in writing: what the consent covers, which sites carry the tag, and how a company is matched. This is not legal advice. For the rules on your own outreach, read our guides to [TCPA and B2B cold calling](https://enrich.chat/blog/tcpa-b2b-cold-calling/) and [cold email](https://enrich.chat/blog/cold-email/).

## When does a contact list work better than intent data?

A contact list works better when you can name your fit accounts and reach all of them, when budget is tight, or when your real gap is who to contact. Intent data earns its price when you have more fit accounts than your team can work and can act on a signal within days.

Start with the numbers. The [Ehrenberg-Bass research](https://marketingscience.info/news-and-insights/ehrenberg-bass-95-of-b2b-buyers-are-not-in-the-market-for-your-products) puts the share of companies in market at about 20% in a year and 5% in a quarter. If your market is a few hundred accounts, a team can contact every one of them in a year. That list includes the roughly one in five that is in market that year, with no signal fee. If your market is tens of thousands of accounts, ranking is the problem, and intent is one way to rank. Figure 3 turns this into a short decision path.

**Figure 3: Do you need intent data or is a contact list enough?** A decision path. If you cannot name the companies that fit, define your ideal customer profile first. If you can name them and contact all of them within a quarter, a contact list is enough. If you cannot, ask whether your team can act within days of a signal. If yes, add intent data to rank the list. If no, work the list in order of fit. Every path ends with finding the person to contact.

*A rule of thumb for choosing between a contact list and intent data. The quarter and the days are guides, not measured thresholds. Illustrative, based on the limits described above.*

### Use a contact list when

- You can list your fit accounts. If you cannot, define them first with an [ideal customer profile](https://enrich.chat/blog/ideal-customer-profile/).
- Your team can contact every account within a year or so.
- A contract near [Vendr's $25,000 Bombora median](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora) is out of reach.
- You already have signals, such as visits to your own pricing page, and need the people behind them.

### Add intent data when

- Your market is large enough that you must rank accounts.
- Your team can act within days of a signal. [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) warns that intent signals decay fast.
- You run account-based ads. [G2 can sync matched companies](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent) to ad platforms, and [Bombora builds digital audiences](https://bombora.com/intent/) from accounts showing intent.
- You already have contacts and need timing.

Many teams do both. [Demandbase](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/) and [ZoomInfo](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it) each advise combining intent with fit and engagement data. Fit comes first, then people, then timing. Even then, someone writes to a named person, and that step needs contact data. Our guide to [data enrichment](https://enrich.chat/blog/what-is-data-enrichment/) explains how it works.

## How do you turn intent signals into contacts?

Take the company domains from your intent source and look up the right people at each one. Enrich.chat does not sell intent data and does not track who visits a website. It handles the step after the signal: company details, tech stacks, people by title, and work emails that come back with a status.

1. **Export the accounts.** Pull the companies that show intent from Apollo, G2, Bombora or your own site analytics.
2. **Add company context.** `GET /v1/company?domain=` returns a name, industry, headcount, state and country. `GET /v1/company/tech?domain=` returns the tech stack. A tech stack shows what a company runs today. It is not a research signal.
3. **Find the people.** `GET /v1/company/people?domain=&title=` lists people with a given title at the company. Each result carries a LinkedIn URL.
4. **Get the work email.** `GET /v1/person` with that LinkedIn URL returns the work email with a status of verified, catch_all or unknown. Enrich.chat never logs in to LinkedIn: the URL is only a lookup key.

Take a worked example. Say your intent source flags 200 accounts and you want three contacts at each, with a work email. That is 600 people. Each person returned uses 5 credits and each work email uses 10, so the job needs 9,000 credits. That fits the Growth plan at $29 a month. A lookup that finds nothing uses 0 credits.

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to take the company domains in my list of in-market accounts, find the head of sales and the VP of marketing at each one, and get their work emails. Flag any catch_all emails as risky, write not found where nothing matches, and tell me the total credits_used.
```

Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor. The agent reads [enrich.chat/agents.md](https://enrich.chat/agents.md) and calls the API for each row. You can also add the MCP server at enrich.chat/mcp: the [install page](https://enrich.chat/install/) has the steps for each app. The free tier gives 10 lookups a day with no signup, and an API key is optional. For longer lists, see [pricing](https://enrich.chat/pricing/), the [people search API](https://enrich.chat/api/people-search/) and the [company enrichment API](https://enrich.chat/api/company-enrichment/). For the wider picture, read [AI lead generation](https://enrich.chat/blog/ai-lead-generation/).

## Frequently asked questions

### What is intent data in simple terms?

Intent data is a record of what companies read, search and compare online, used to guess which ones may be about to buy. A provider adds up the activity for each company, compares it with the company's normal level, and flags a spike. It points to an account and a topic. It does not name the person who did the research. See [firmographic data](https://enrich.chat/blog/firmographic-data/) for how it differs from other B2B data.

### What are the three types of intent data?

First-party intent data comes from channels you own, such as your website, emails and product. Second-party data is another organization's first-party data shared with you, such as buyer activity on a review site like G2. Third-party data is collected across outside sites and networks, such as Bombora's co-op of B2B publishers. Most teams combine at least two types.

### How much does intent data cost?

It usually costs tens of thousands of dollars a year. Vendr's buyer data shows a median of $25,000 a year for Bombora and $62,220 for 6sense, and most vendors publish no list price. Apollo is the cheapest way in: it includes buying intent on every plan, with 1 topic on Free and up to 12 on Organization. See [Apollo pricing](https://enrich.chat/blog/apollo-pricing/) for plan prices.

### How accurate is intent data?

No source we read gives a single accuracy rate, and each provider scores differently. Demandbase says intent is a signal, not proof that someone will buy. ZoomInfo says a pricing-page view alone does not reliably predict a purchase. Apollo shows only Bombora scores of 61 or higher. Treat a flagged account as a reason to look closer, then check fit and find a real contact.

### What is the difference between intent data and contact data?

Intent data tells you which companies are researching a topic and roughly when. Contact data tells you who works there and how to reach them: a name, title, work email or mobile number. Intent flags accounts, and contact data lets you act on them. Most teams need both. Our guide to [data enrichment](https://enrich.chat/blog/what-is-data-enrichment/) covers the contact side.

### Does Enrich.chat provide intent data?

No. Enrich.chat does not sell intent data or track website visitors. It supplies the step after the signal: company profiles, tech stacks, people at a company by title, and work emails that come back with a status. Pair it with an intent source or your own site analytics. The free tier gives 10 lookups a day with no signup. See [pricing](https://enrich.chat/pricing/).

## Sources

1. [Company Surge intent data](https://bombora.com/intent/)
2. [What is B2B intent data?](https://www.demandbase.com/faq/what-is-intent-data/)
3. [Intent Data: Technology Glossary Definitions](https://www.g2.com/glossary/intent-data-definition)
4. [Buyer Intent documentation](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent)
5. [Buyer Intent data reference](https://documentation.g2.com/docs/buyer-intent-data-reference)
6. [Buying Intent Overview](https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/8047704465933)
7. [What Is Intent Data? How to Use It in B2B Sales](https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/what-is-intent-data-and-how-to-use-it)
8. [B2B Intent Data](https://6sense.com/platform/intent-data/)
9. [6sense Sales Intelligence pricing](https://6sense.com/pricing/)
10. [Pricing and packaging](https://www.demandbase.com/pricing/)
11. [Bombora pricing and plans](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/bombora)
12. [6sense pricing and plans](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/6sense)
13. [ZoomInfo pricing and plans](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/zoominfo)
14. [G2 pricing and plans](https://www.vendr.com/marketplace/g2)
15. [Ehrenberg-Bass: 95% of B2B buyers are not in the market for your products](https://marketingscience.info/news-and-insights/ehrenberg-bass-95-of-b2b-buyers-are-not-in-the-market-for-your-products)
16. [What is personal information: a guide](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/personal-information-what-is-it/what-is-personal-information-a-guide/)
17. [Enrich.chat agents.md](https://enrich.chat/agents.md)

## Try this prompt

Find the people at accounts that show intent

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to take the company domains in my list of in-market accounts, find the head of sales and the VP of marketing at each one, and get their work emails. Flag any catch_all emails as risky, write not found where nothing matches, and tell me the total credits_used.
```

## Related

- [Firmographic vs technographic data](https://enrich.chat/blog/firmographic-data/)
- [What is sales intelligence?](https://enrich.chat/blog/what-is-sales-intelligence/)
- [Ideal customer profile template](https://enrich.chat/blog/ideal-customer-profile/)